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04 March 2012

On Friday, my family and I ventured over to neighbouring Macau. The former Portuguese colony is only an hours ferry ride away and a popular tourist destination for Asia. I visited last Summer in the crazy heat and this time, it was a lot more comfortable walking around the old town. The buildings here are so vibrant and the Macau government have put a lot of money into the upkeep of the old Portuguese style buildings (which I took more pics of last Summer) but are easily visible with their pastel coloured buildings and European influences. However there is an abundance of more run down buildings which also add to the charm of Macau.

One of the first things we did is stop in one of the traditional dessert shops. I had a Water chestnut soup with egg white and some sesame tong yuen (balls made from glutinous rice flour). This is one part of Asian culture that I especially love!

We were super lucky that my aunt had some business over in Macau and we were able to stay at the super luxurious, 5 star Banyan Tree hotel which is a resort hotel from Thailand. It was super posh and has a variety of rooms ranging from the standard suite which we stayed in (which was not at all standard/small on any terms!) to huge villas complete with pool. I'm not sure if I'd ever have the chance to stay in a hotel like this ever again. So I made the most of it! My aunt who often visits Macau for work, says that and the hotel next door (The Okura) were the most exclusive hotels in Macau. Wow.

Our 'standard' room had a shallow pool, living room area and a huge bathroom, complete with awesome wooden bath tub, double shower room with rain shower and to my surprise...the toilet seat was even heated! Mind boggling. The whole place smelled of lemongrass. It was quite the experience. My aunt said that the hotel caters especially towards couples which explains the resort feel and the double features in the suite.

I'm not sure what they call the pool below because it's super shallow and I suppose they're perfect for having a bit of a soak or even just soaking weary feet.

Obviously judging from the photo below on the right, that's exactly what I did, please excuse the PJ bottoms! How could I resist testing out the lovely warm water? I look ridiculously happy and believe me, I was since I felt so lucky to be in that hotel.

Blouse (Miss Selfridge) Jeans (BDG)

After lots of oohing and aahing over the hotel room, we left the room and hopped into a taxi to a restaurant which my grandparents really love and rave on about. I figured it must be good because it's hard to please my grandparents more mature tastebuds! At To To Koi, we had yummy Guangzhou cuisine consisting of crispy roast Chicken, sweet and sour pork and crispy suckling pig. I quickly realised that they were right to rave on about it and our meal cost about $500 for 4 people, which is about £40. So good.

After the meal we headed back to the hotel but stopped off at the Galaxy Hotel which adjoins our hotel and the Japanese themed Okura Hotel which I'll mention in the next post]. We wandered through the Galaxy hotel which has a huge casino on the main floor (Macau is famed for it's casinos) and a crazy amount of luxury brands. Macau caters a lot for Chinese tourism and plenty of mainland Chinese flock to Macau to load up on their designer goods, just like they do in Hong Kong too.
However we soon found ourselves back in our hotel room where I made my aunt take a photo of me posing in that tub (if I wasn't sharing a room then I totally would have filled it up and had a right old soak!
Since we were in Macau, we had to pick up some Portuguese egg tarts. Compared to normal Chinese egg tarts, the pastry is really flaky and crispy. They're so good! We also bought a box of these fresh old fashioned Chinese candies which is spun sugar (like candy floss) with a peanut filling. They look and feel a lot like cotton wool balls which is kind of odd at first! My family said that it made them feel quite nostalgic because they were such traditional Chinese candies.
The rest of the night, we watched Cantonese TVB dramas from bed and looked forward to the following day which I will share with you guys in the next post!

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Waaha so cool! you're so lucky Winnie! That hotel is so awesome wow wow wow haha XD I'm glad you made the most of it :)) I remember your last Macau post, I really like the mix between Chinese and Portuguese culture, the first photo in this post is awesome and really symbolises that!Also, as always, I want to eat everything you eat. That candy floss with peanut filling seems SO YUMMY waah! : 3 Looking forward for your next post!

what stunning pictures Winnie! everything looks so adventurous! I love the pictures of the city... what a luck to be able to stay at uch a cool place! the 'tub' is fabulous! every girl's dream :D thank you for sharing these magnificient photos!

Wow Winnie! It looks and sounds like you are having a blast! I actually just went to Macau as well to spend Christmas eve with a friend and watched the House of dancing water. We stayed at some crappy hotel tho, despite it claiming to be 5 stars! Did u manage to watch the house of dancing water?

Gosh, you are one lucky one to experience the Banyan Tree Hotel experience, it sounds sooo luxurious! I love how it has a shallow pool and that wooden bath tub is sooo adorable (kinda Japanese-y if u ask me,lol). I didn't know this hotel was catered to couples tho.

Did u enjoy the Galaxy? I thought it was okay, much prefer to Venetian, it's my fave hotel, hehe. Yes, there are loads of mainlanders in Macau and HK, they shop like mad! lol

I love tong yuen too, and reminds me, i haven't had some in a while! That spun sugar candy is yum too, think it's called "low so tong"??? pardon me if i'm wrong, my chinese aint the best,,lol.

The food looks delish! I have got to try that restaurant when i go back to Macau next time. Sweet and sour pork is actually my fave dish, hehehe.

My brain is really sturggling with Portuguese and Chinese next to each other. How bizarre. Looks like an awesome trip, the hotel is to die for, I continue to be jealous of your adventures and thos chinese candies made from spun sugar sound like exactly my kind of sugar rush! Peanut Butter AND Candy Floss

OMG, your hotel tho! I have never seen nor been to a hotel like that. One day, I will definitely have to go there! It looks divine! I loved seeing your pictures on IG, so I'm glad that I got to see your post! --Ciara

Omg you've done so much in HK already! I stayed at the Banyan tree as well which was quite fun. It took forever to fill that tub up with water- and by the time we did it was way too hot so we had to empty half of it and put cold water in it. Super unenvironmentally friendly...